Captain Ed is a father and grandfather living in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota, a native Californian who moved to the North Star State because of the weather. He lives with his wife Marcia, also known as the First Mate, their two dogs, and frequently watch their granddaughter Kayla, whom Captain Ed calls The Little Admiral... [read more]

Yesterday I wrote about the obvious quid pro quo between Bill Clinton's presidential pardon of Edgar and Vonna Jo Gregory and the loans given to Hillary Clinton's brother, Anthony Rodham, starting two months later. Clinton pardoned the Gregorys in March 2000 for bank fraud convictions going back to 1982. Without that pardon, United Shows (owned by the Gregorys) could not procure state contracts for handling carnivals. In May 2000, United Shows started issuing a series of loans to Rodham that eventually totalled $107,000, loans for which they never demanded payment and which Rodham never paid on his own. It was not until United Shows went into receivership that the loans came to light, and the receiver filed claims against Rodham for repayment of the $107,000, plus another $46,000 in interest.

United and the Gregorys never intended to demand repayment of the loans, which is why they never tried to collect on them. They dressed up on obvious payoff in return for their pardon, which Rodham championed with his sister and brother-in-law. If United had never gone into bankruptcy, the arrangement would never have come to light.

Now CQ has learned from a reader, Jim T, that Rodham was not the only recipient of the Gregorys' largesse. In fact, a search at Open Secrets shows that the Gregorys had sent $10,000 to Hillary's Senate campaign, about half of which came before the pardon. The entire Gregory clan appears to have participated in this enterprise. Edgar, Vonna Jo, Donald, Faith, and Jacqueline all contributed $1000 on 7/7/1999, eight months before Bill issued his pardon. All five donated the exact same amount -- thereby hitting the maximum amount by law -- on 10/5/2000.

Interestingly, the Gregorys all donated $1,000 to Bill Clinton's re-election bid in 1996, too. However, they haven't donated a penny since October 2000. Apparently, they got what they wanted out of the Clintons. It also appears that the Clintons and the Rodhams got what they wanted out of the Gregorys as well.

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And the kicker? The Gregorys contributed ten grand to Hillary's Senate campaign, half of it before she was elected in 2000. Man, they were covering all the bases - and buying a political futures contract at the same time.
Think this'll come up in ... [Read More]